Posts Tagged ‘Jaguar C-X16’

Jaguar will add an all-new sports car to its line-up a little more than a year from now, the maker revealed during its New York Auto Show news conference.

Dubbed F-Type, it is the long-anticipated production version of the CX-16 concept car unveiled last year. The new 2-seater will slot underneath the British maker’s current XK line and provide an affordable, high-performance entry into the Jaguar line-up.

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“It opens up a much bigger part of the market to us,” explained Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar’s global marketing chief, during a conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com.

Though the production F-Type won’t be quite as radical as the CX-16 show car – with its unusual, side-opening hatchback – Jaguar contends the new model will put a premium on both styling and performance. It is expected to come close to the brute power of the maker’s current muscle car, the XK-R, hinted Hallmark.

Jaguar will decide in a matter of weeks whether to produce the C-X16 sports car.

With its subtle stylistic link to the classic Jaguar E-Type, the British maker’s C-X16 concept has been winning rave reviews in recent months and company officials appear poised to give the show car the go for production “before the end of the year,” according to a senior Jaguar official.

A final decision will likely depend on the response the C-X16 gets when it goes on display at this week’s L.A. Auto Show, where it will vie for attention alongside the maker’s new XKR-S sports coupe. Should management give the show car the nod it would almost certainly reach showrooms sometime during the 2013 calendar year, company officials confirmed.

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In production, Jaguar’s global brand boss Adrian Hallmark tells TheDetroitBureau.com, it is highly likely that a special high-performance plug-in hybrid system will be among the C-X16’s powertrain options. But Jaguar officials also stressed that the production version would likely lose a few of the distinctive features of the concept car, notably including the swing-open hatchback.

Jaguar will lift the covers on the most powerful convertible it has ever produced during the upcoming L.A. Auto Show – one of a number of debuts scheduled for the annual automotive event.

The maker’s news conference will be anchored by the preview of the Jaguar XKR-S, which will be paired in showrooms with the recently-launched XKR-S Coupe — introduced in Geneva earlier this year – both making a full 550 horsepower, more than any other product in the marque’s history.

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The L.A. Show preview will also bring the North American debut of a number of other concepts and production vehicles from Jaguar, including the well-received C-X16 hybrid concept, and the Land Rover DC100.

Who says a hybrid can’t quicken your pulse. Okay, most folks only get excited about a Toyota Prius when they realize they’re saving money at the gas pump. But Jaguar is betting it can get a little adrenaline flowing with an exotic design that uses a hybrid powertrain to enhance its performance, as much or more than to deliver good fuel economy.

We’ve offered a tease of the Jaguar C-X16 already but now we’ve got the first official pics of the “Baby Jag” sports car that the maker plans to unveil at next week’s Frankfurt Motor Show. The Ian Callum styling will clearly be familiar to Jag fans, taking the sleek XK to a new level of aero-swept design.

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The all-aluminum body and chassis measures just 175 inches nose-to-tail — or about 13 inches shorter than the current XK Coupe and four inches shorter than a Porsche 911 – and 51 inches tall. It would be the smallest Jaguar since the 1954 XK120, in fact. That is, if it goes into production.

“Jaguars have always been dramatically different,” says Callum. “With the C-X16 we have moved the current award-winning design language on to the next generation, creating a car that is the very essence of future Jaguar performance.”

A hint of one or more sports cars to come? A sketch of Jaguar's new C-X16 concept, which will debut in Frankfurt next month.

Stretch your mind a bit and this sketch will give you a hint of what’s the come at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show, when Jaguar officially unleashes what it’s calling a “precursor” to a future sports car it hopes will do for the brand what the classic E-Type did precisely 50 years ago.

What that means, well, the British maker isn’t saying much more beyond calling the concept the C-X16, and suggesting its ambitious goal is to “set new class benchmarks in design, vehicle dynamics and technology.”

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“Jaguar has set in place bold, ambitious plans for the future,” suggests Adrian Hallmark, the marque’s global brand director. “This production concept demonstrates the depth of design and engineering ability we have within Jaguar to make these plans come to life. I look forward to sharing this latest, exciting step at the Frankfurt Motor Show.”

If you have a sense of déjà vu, no surprise. There is certainly some hint of the current Jaguar XK in this sketch, though it’s clear Jaguar design chief Ian Callum wants to take the styling to a new level, going beyond the somewhat generic look of the current 2-door. But it will nonetheless be a tall order to even come close to the classic E-Type, which was a revolutionary breakthrough that even rivals adored.